Locations
Excerpt: Interview Transcription
2021
GU: The location from which one chooses to paint has meaning. It is important.
Location determines the palette.
Why did Van Gogh move to France? Why did Corot paint in Italy? And Turner, Monet, why did they travel? These men were all interested in the landscape as a primary resource and made use of the optical impressions of light, colour and movement in the landscape, in the moment, as they saw it and felt it, as a principal concern in their work. Different location, different provocation - painting in a particular location requires a distinctive palette and thereby results in distinctive paintings. Why restrict to painting in only one climate or one area if you are able to move around? The world has so much to offer in terms of varied light, colour and mood.
The light between Glasgow and Edinburgh is not the same. And the light in Cambridge is very close to that of Edinburgh. There is a difference between northern light and southern light, and in west to east also. You must take into consideration the amount of land mass or water that there is in the particular view you are looking at, the altitude of the land, its proximity to the ocean, and the amount of moisture in the air… All these details, these agents, affect light and colour and change one’s palette. Deciphering it all, making sense of it as you paint is a complex process that requires some dedication and focus.
Different locations mean whole, new, unexperienced combinations of natural phenomena to work from. I am awakened and stimulated by the challenges that different locations of the world present to me because the natural elements of light, colour, space and form are endlessly changing and never the same. Stand still on one spot for three weeks and paint all day, every day… what you will observe, will not be the same from one second to the next…that’s a lot of paintings right there. Not one will be the same. Move to a different location, and you must begin again, discovering, assimilating and wrestling with a whole new torrent of information. This time it is a different awakening. Another experience. I am always eager to learn as much from it as I can. This simple attitude and approach usually results in the production of a great deal of work.
Different locations mark points in time. Painting in certain locations and in different seasons establishes chronology through my work as a whole. There is a sequential arrangement there. I have no doubt that I shall paint roses, for example, for the rest of my life, and it is important to me to note or convey somehow that these were painted, for example, in Cornwall in late autumn just after the first frost, or that those are the extensive rugosa hedge I encountered lining a long empty road on the island of Orkney before my children were born. Even though a lot of paintings are not a naturalistic depiction of a landscape there are subtle clues to read in them, which reveal the location that inspired it. My work does present as a chronicle, often stamped with times, dates, seasons…And by locations.
Geoff Uglow
Studio 2021